Making Changes, new look

[Guest Lenny]

It all started when I went to the SEMA show in Las Vegas. If your not familuar with this show, it is for the manufactures of aftermarket products for on and off road vehicles. First I bought a winch. Actually 3 of them. A 12,000# winch wilth synthetic rope for my truck, a 4800# one with steel cable for my Trooper which I will lengthen the drum on so it will hold about 125 feet of synthetic rope while fitting it so it can be used on the front or back as Joyner originally intended for their winches. I also bought a 9500# winch with synthetic rope which I may sell. These are all rated at single line pull. Then while at the show I bought a pair of carbon fibre racing seats. These seats sit far better while supporting and holding you in better. They sit a lot lower so I can now lower my top without giving up all the head room. I'm also going to go with power seats as I can do this easier (just happen to have the drives) and still keep things low and I'll still be 10 pounds lighter per seat. In the mean time I have wanted to go to a glass windsheild. Tried 3 lexan ones and wasn't satified with any of them. The static charge they develope just draws too much dust. I wanted a curved windsheild like one of my designs in lexan. Started to look in auto junk yards at front and rear auto windows. Most everything is too big and pretty much all rear windows have heat wires across them. Got lucky and found a rear window from a 1972 Maverick, just right and no heat wires. Currently I'm putting the seats in which will dictate how low I can go with the roof. The roof heigth will dictate the slope of the windsheild which in turn will dictate the shape of the front portion of the roll bars. I bought some foam pipe insulation from Home Depot to use to mock up various design thoughts for the roll cage. Once decided upon, I'm going to build them using .095" by 1-3/4" DOM tubing alloy 1026. I'm leaning towards a fast back design but time will tell. Because I'm going to have to get into the front fenders, I'm going to extend them forward, tappering them off to no width at the frontl This should eliminate the occasional blow back of sand I get from the front tires.

The timing for this project is working out just perfect as I just had surgury on my right foot for flat feet problems. This will take 6 weeks to heal and then I have to do the other foot. This gives me time during which I really can't ride in anyway. I'll be a bit slow but this project is going to take a lot of time just sitting there and looking at things. Besides as some of you already know, when I'm in my shop, no matter what I'm working on, I'm in Hog Heaven. The final dyno work will have to wait, besides, I'm going to change the pully on my supercharger to spin it a bit faster make up for my lower compression. The compression ended up too low from lowering it before adding the aftercooler which effectively lowers compression.

Lenny

[rocmoc]

Sound cool Lenny. You probably already know but only the front glass in cars is laminated so if a break occurs glass will not fly in your face. The rear glass is tempered and will break into a million small pieces.

rocmoc n AZ

[Guest Lenny]

  On 11/12/2011 at 7:45 PM, rocmoc said:

Sound cool Lenny. You probably already know but only the front glass in cars is laminated so if a break occurs glass will not fly in your face. The rear glass is tempered and will break into a million small pieces.

rocmoc n AZ

Thanks Mike, I didn't even think of that. Both I and Jeanne wear glasses so hopefully that wil help should should you kick up a big stone as your screaming by me.

Lenny

[showa]

Lenny,

You shoulda hollered at me when you were in Vegas... At least could have gone to dinner.... I didn't go to SEMA this year but I did volunteer for the Optima Battery race in Pahrump on Saturday... Man, talk about sights/sounds of those cars from SEMA doing the road course, autox and speed stop challenge !!!

Pure motorhead heaven...........

[rocmoc]

When you all get the date, post it here or email me. We will try to make it next year.

rocmoc n AZ

[showa]

The race is the Saturday after SEMA... This year they allowed in spectators ($10) ... First week of November is usually the SEMA show... I'll post when

i know for sure...

It should be broadcast on Speed channel sometime this winter too...

[MauyThai1]

  On 11/12/2011 at 5:58 PM, Lenny said:

It all started when I went to the SEMA show in Las Vegas. If your not familuar with this show, it is for the manufactures of aftermarket products for on and off road vehicles. First I bought a winch. Actually 3 of them. A 12,000# winch wilth synthetic rope for my truck, a 4800# one with steel cable for my Trooper which I will lengthen the drum on so it will hold about 125 feet of synthetic rope while fitting it so it can be used on the front or back as Joyner originally intended for their winches. I also bought a 9500# winch with synthetic rope which I may sell. These are all rated at single line pull. Then while at the show I bought a pair of carbon fibre racing seats. These seats sit far better while supporting and holding you in better. They sit a lot lower so I can now lower my top without giving up all the head room. I'm also going to go with power seats as I can do this easier (just happen to have the drives) and still keep things low and I'll still be 10 pounds lighter per seat. In the mean time I have wanted to go to a glass windsheild. Tried 3 lexan ones and wasn't satified with any of them. The static charge they develope just draws too much dust. I wanted a curved windsheild like one of my designs in lexan. Started to look in auto junk yards at front and rear auto windows. Most everything is too big and pretty much all rear windows have heat wires across them. Got lucky and found a rear window from a 1972 Maverick, just right and no heat wires. Currently I'm putting the seats in which will dictate how low I can go with the roof. The roof heigth will dictate the slope of the windsheild which in turn will dictate the shape of the front portion of the roll bars. I bought some foam pipe insulation from Home Depot to use to mock up various design thoughts for the roll cage. Once decided upon, I'm going to build them using .095" by 1-3/4" DOM tubing alloy 1026. I'm leaning towards a fast back design but time will tell. Because I'm going to have to get into the front fenders, I'm going to extend them forward, tappering them off to no width at the frontl This should eliminate the occasional blow back of sand I get from the front tires.

The timing for this project is working out just perfect as I just had surgury on my right foot for flat feet problems. This will take 6 weeks to heal and then I have to do the other foot. This gives me time during which I really can't ride in anyway. I'll be a bit slow but this project is going to take a lot of time just sitting there and looking at things. Besides as some of you already know, when I'm in my shop, no matter what I'm working on, I'm in Hog Heaven. The final dyno work will have to wait, besides, I'm going to change the pully on my supercharger to spin it a bit faster make up for my lower compression. The compression ended up too low from lowering it before adding the aftercooler which effectively lowers compression.

Lenny

Lenny I made mud gaurds from a high impact plastic which I got at SSD plastics, look on their site they work great and are very durable. I had the same problem with dust on my windshield but I was able to solve it with just some good car wax which also gets rid of the smoke look you can get from cleaning it. I just apply a couple of coats a few times a year and have much less dust. My windshield is complete except the top four inches which I cut off so I could keep a good air flow which helps keep the cab pressure the same to prevent a vacum which will draw the dust into the cab. Im out all winter so if it is raining or snowing I made a squirt for the top of the wind shield which is attached to the inside of the roof and snaps up out of the way. When it is bad weather I can unsnap the squirt from the roof and snap it to the top of the winshield to close off the upper four inches of the windshield. When its raing or snowing the dust isn't a problem with the squirt down.

[Guest Lenny]

  On 11/19/2011 at 2:11 AM, MauyThai1 said:

Lenny I made mud gaurds from a high impact plastic which I got at SSD plastics, look on their site they work great and are very durable. I had the same problem with dust on my windshield but I was able to solve it with just some good car wax which also gets rid of the smoke look you can get from cleaning it. I just apply a couple of coats a few times a year and have much less dust. My windshield is complete except the top four inches which I cut off so I could keep a good air flow which helps keep the cab pressure the same to prevent a vacum which will draw the dust into the cab. Im out all winter so if it is raining or snowing I made a squirt for the top of the wind shield which is attached to the inside of the roof and snaps up out of the way. When it is bad weather I can unsnap the squirt from the roof and snap it to the top of the winshield to close off the upper four inches of the windshield. When its raing or snowing the dust isn't a problem with the squirt down.

I used 1/8" thick conveyor belting for my fenders. It's very durable and stiff enough to hold it's shape where I have it sticking past its supports. Thanks for the thoughts on the vacume, I have forgotten about that problem. I have a firewwall between the engine and cab. This helps cut down on the air flow thru the cab area. I'll just have to see how it goes after the windsheild is in. In the nicer weather I plan folding the windsheild down when riding. Kind of like the air in my face, sometimes. I do have side deflecters I made a couple of years ago that fit on the vertical side tubes of the windsheild that catch the air and deflect it into the cab area to help break the vacume effect. May have to dig them out if I have a problem. I plan on putting window washers and wipers on so when the window does get dusty I can clean it on the fly. The glass will be more resistant to scratching with the wipers.

Lenny